Tony Perkins Still Can’t Let Go Of DADT

April 21, 2011 11:34 am ET by Carlos Maza

Old habits die hard, apparently. On Tuesday, Tony Perkins, president
of the Family Research Council (FRC) -- designated
an anti-gay
hate
groupby the Southern Poverty Law Center
-- wrote a column
for FoxNews.com attempting to resurrect old
fears about open military service and asking
House Republicans to try to derail the repeal of the military’s Don’t Ask,
Don’t Tell (DADT) policy:

[T]he “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell Repeal
Act of 2010” did not actually repeal anything. Instead, it set in motion an
unusual series of trigger mechanisms, which would not lead to repeal until
sixty days after the last one of them is completed. Since this process has not
yet been completed, the law barring homosexual conduct in the military is still
in place—and there is still time to stop this ill-advised repeal.

[…]

[T]he new House of Representatives,
under Republican control, has now had the opportunity, in two hearings, to ask
some of the hard questions that were not asked in the rushed lame duck
session—and shine light on the fact that repeal does not meet those standards.

Unfortunately for Perkins, the House hearings he references did not find that DADT repeal “does not meet those
standards.” During the April 1 House Armed Services subcommittee on
repeal, Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness Clifford Stanley
testified that he saw “no issues or problems” with the law’s repeal, adding
“all is going well.” Despite multiple attempts to
raise concerns about the cost and necessity of preparing troops for open
service, Republicans subcommittee members were largely unable to validate their
horror stories about openly gay service members.

The story wasn’t very different during the April 7 full
House Armed Services Committee hearing. Unless, of course, you’re listening to
Tony Perkins. From
his Fox News.com column:

The Pentagon has prepared detailed
training about repeal of the current law, which is already underway. But on
April 7, the House Armed Services Committee questioned the four service chiefs
(all of whom expressed significant reservations about repeal last year). None
of the chiefs was prepared to declare that such a change would improve the
military, and Army Gen. George Casey stated in written remarks that it
posed a “moderate risk” to the force—in contrast to last year’s Pentagon study,
which declared the risk to be “low.” [emphasis added]

Perkins is engaging in a dishonest but commonright-wing tactic in order to dismiss evidence in
favor of DADT repeal. Neither of these hearings was held in order to determine
if repealing DADT would “improve” the military – their goal was to determine if
DADT repeal would adversely affect the military’s ability to fulfill its roles.
On that question, the chiefs were quite
clear.

I’m looking for issues that might
arise specifically coming out of the … training, and to be honest with you,
chairman, we’ve not seen it… here’s questions about billeting for Marines — I
mean, the kinds of questions you would expect — but there hasn’t been the
recalcitrant pushback, there’s not been the anxiety over it from the forces in
the field.

Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Norton Schwartz:

We will rely on steady leadership at all levels to
implement this change in a manner that is consistent with standards of military
readiness and effectiveness, with minimal adverse effect on unit cohesion,
recruiting and retention in the Air Force.

Chief
of Naval Operations Adm. Gary Roughead:

The United States Navy can
successfully implement a repeal of the law. Combat effectiveness is what we
provide the nation and repeal will not change who we are or what we do.

Perkins isn’t the first right-winger to grossly misrepresentwhat happened during the House DADT hearings.

However, it appears his
call to disrupt the discriminatory law’s ongoing repeal hasn’t fallen on deaf
ears in Congress. Last week, Rep. Buck McKeon (R-CA), Chair of the House Armed
Services Committee, announced
his support for a bill that would expand the certification requirements for
DADT repeal, further slowing the repeal process.